43 Blood

[Bikey]

Another lovely review - this one from Chris Neilson at DVD Talk:http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/40225/bl ... e/?___rd=1

[Bikey]

Pedro Costa interviewed by James Mansfield in Little White Lies here: http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/interv ... dro-costa/

[Bikey]

A lovely review from Glenn Kenny at The Auteurs: http://www.theauteurs.com/notebook/posts/1190

[Bikey]

...and another from Joseph Bridges at ReelSoundTheory.com: http://www.realsoundtheory.com/movies/o ... -blood-dvd

[Oedipax]

Well this is something:

[Bikey]

Our Blood release is #6 in Time Out's 10 Best DVD's of 2009! http://www.timeout.com/film/features/sh ... -2009.html

[Bikey]

Second Run's Blood release gets four nods in Sight & Sound's 'DVD's of 2009' poll of international critics: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/exc ... f_2009.php

[peerpee]

Very, very belatedly managed to get to this recently. The HD transfer is astonishingly good. Doesn't get any better than this on SD.

It's a tremendously sure-footed debut (Costa was 29 at the time) and the production values are wonderful (glorious b+w 1.37:1 cinematography) which reminded me of MOUCHETTE/BALTHAZAR era aesthetics.

A cracking disc.

[tajmahal]

Very, very belatedly managed to get to this recently. The HD transfer is astonishingly good. Doesn't get any better than this on SD.

It's a tremendously sure-footed debut (Costa was 29 at the time) and the production values are wonderful (glorious b+w 1.37:1 cinematography) which reminded me of MOUCHETTE/BALTHAZAR era aesthetics.

A cracking disc.

I watched this for the first time last week. Indeed, a lovely print. Interesting film, beautifully shot. After reading the essays, I returned to the Dvdtimes review, with the following criticism, in part, of Adrian Martin's piece.

While I generally admire Second Run's booklets well enough, this one just didn't strike me in any positive manner. Most annoying, Martin's seeming compulsion to reference as many directors as possible in his essay, while presumably done to corral Costa's influences for the "burning necessity" he attributes to the filmmaker, borders on the absurd.

I can see the reviewers dilemma, but what else to do when writing about a film which openly references so many films and filmmakers. I admit, I did almost have an 'Oh, enough already!' moment with the scene where

Spoiler

the body is fished out of the water with the mist hovering. maybe it was just me, but I haven't seen a better Mizoguchi Ugetsu homage than this.

Insanely gorgeous to look at, heavily indebted to Bresson, and one of the most ambitious debut films I can recall.

[colinr0380]

What an astoundingly beatuiful film, the black and white images lending a nice sense of crisp austerity to the scenes. I also thought that the sparsely used music cues were perfectly placed for moments of maximum impact too. I was very grateful for the feature of João Pedro Bénard da Costa reading through some of the key scenes from the film as it helped to clarify some of my feelings towards it - his comments about the Rebel Without A Cause influence (of the love affair between a couple throwing the third character in the story out into the cold, there the extremely close friend, here the younger brother) felt very apt, but was not the whole story of this film.

I felt that the theme of the film was of those delicate moments of connection and of co-operation before the inevitable collapse into individualistic behaviours, shown in many different ways from the lack of co-operation Nino shows towards his uncle when the uncle steals him away from Vincente; Vincente and Clara running off, allowing Nino to be 'stolen' away; the father's brusque attitude and abandonment; Vincente asking Clara to help him bury his father and then running off and leaving her in the graveyard; the old lady left in the dark about what happened to the father, left hoping for the best without knowing that the worst happened long ago (much like Clara telling Nino that things will go back to the way they were, saying things that both know to be impossible).

All of these feel like situations where people are taking liberties with other people's generosity and trust, and there feels like a repeated motif of incredibly intimate close ups being the moment before the greatest betrayals of others occur. I guess that is why I do not feel any particular sympathy for any of the characters, except perhaps for Nino. The film feels like a succession of blows to force the characters to grow up into some form of clear-eyed self-sufficiency - or into a strange netherworld of semi-existence, with little acknowledgement from others (Is self-sufficiency in the end another form of death? Of existing totally apart from others?)

[shaky]

So I've been trying to make my way through this Second Run disc, and I'm finding myself continually distracted by what looks like light interlacing periodically throughout the movie. Every shot seems to contain some form of this mild horizontal lining throughout its duration. Gary T. brings up a "moiring" of some sort, but doesn't go into anymore detail about it. Has anybody else experienced this? I know that Nick W. earlier said that the "HD transfer is astonishingly good," so I'm beginning to worry that perhaps my television is, for some reason, causing this lining to occur. Anyways, any information would be greatly appreciated.

[nitin]

Is there any chance this could be upgraded to blu?

The DVD looks tremendous but this level of cinematography, truly some of the best B&W I have seen, really deserves a blu bump! Not to mention the absolutely amazing film which still has me in a lucid dream like state.

What are our chances of an upgrade?

[Calvin]

Trailer for the new 4K restoration

[hmcnaught]

Ooh, hope it gets a blu-ray upgrade.

What are the chances of In Vanda's Room getting a release on the label?

[ryannichols7]

Trailer for the new 4K restoration

phenomenal timing, I had just asked one of the US labels that have put out his work whether they'd be interested in putting this out. got a "maybe" so this would end up pretty well!

the trailer says its a Venice selection but I didn't see it on the lineup anywhere

[Calvin]

the trailer says its a Venice selection but I didn't see it on the lineup anywhere

It's a special screening in the Venice Critics' Week.

I'm hopeful that Second Run will give it an upgrade with the new restoration. Fingers crossed anyway.

[Calvin]

There's still tickets available to the In Conversation event with Pedro Costa and Victor Erice tomorrow at the ICA, London https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/d ... ontext_id=

[ryannichols7]

here I was hoping a Bluray would finally be announced, with Adrian Martin making his Second Run commentary debut...it'll be worth the wait!

[spectre]

Not sure about the commentary, but pretty sure Grasshopper are supposed to be doing a Blu-ray of this before the year is out! That’ll definitely be an immediate pre-order for me when it’s announced.

https://twitter.com/GhopperFilm/status/ ... 92?lang=en

[Calvin]

I notice that both this and Casa de Lava are listed as Out of Print on Second Run's site. Hopefully signifying an upgrade soon rather than them just letting the rights go but we'll have to wait and see. Two years on from the above post, I doubt we'll ever see a physical release of Blood from Grasshopper.

[ryannichols7]

as I echoed elsewhere, would be more than happy with a Blood / Casa de Lava: Two Films by Pedro Costa release. here's hoping!